The Little Merman
by iamtyping98
Summary: An AU fic featuring a young Bumi as a merman who is interested in air-breathers, and a young Lin as Captain of a ship carrying incredibly important cargo. What will happen when their worlds collide? As you'd imagine it carries The Little Mermaid elements, with an Avatarverse style. Features Lin/Bumi and is rated T 'cause I don't know.(Like most I'm bad at summaries so just try it.)
1. The Surface

**Alternate Mermaid Universe for the win!**

"Ha!" Bumi cried as he reached up and snagged the ball just as it was about to clear his head. "You two will have to do better than that if you want to beat me!"

"Oh, come on," his sister called. "Just hit it back."

The young merman nodded and with a mighty swing of his fishy tail, he sent the ball hurdling back towards his opponents. Kya and Tenzin both reached for it, but only succeeded in knocking their heads together, allowing the ball to float past them and into the net.

"Wahoo!" the eldest cried. "And Bumi remains the undefeated tail-ball champion!"

His siblings rolled their eyes, unamused.

"Whatever," Tenzin said, "I need to go to training anyway. Those currents won't support themselves."

"Say hi to Dad for us," Kya told their brother as he swam off. She turned to Bumi and said, "I'm having fun, but I really need to go too. There's supposed to be a surface storm today, and Mom and the others are going to need help calming the reefs."

"Really? But we were having so much fun!" He tossed the ball from hand to hand, as if this would persuade her. But Kya just shook her head."

"Come off it, Bumi. You're twenty-four! It's about time you grew up and quit playing around all the time."

With that his sister left, headed in the opposite direction as Tenzin. Bumi sighed and floated down to sit on a rock. He scratched at the crimson scales that adorned his tail and sighed. It wasn't his fault he didn't take responsibility; at least it sort of wasn't. He hadn't been born with an Assignment like his siblings. While Tenzin had, like their father, been born with ability to manipulate the very water which they breathed, and Kya was able to soothe and heal the great reefs which surrounded their homes.

Bumi: nothing. Just nothing. He couldn't soothe the reefs, he couldn't make currents, he couldn't produce light and he couldn't shift the sands. In short, he was useless. And being useless meant that you often found yourself alone.

Well mostly alone; Bumi heard a whistle and turned to see his favorite sea-horseguppy swimming toward him.

"Hey Bum Ju!" he greeted the little fish.

The creature wiggled its tail and stretched its neck out, excited to see its friend.

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see you," the merman commented. Bum Ju nibbled at his brown hair as it floated in the current. Bumi reached up, took the little fish and cradled it in his arms. Little Bum Ju snuggled up against his friend's bare chest and burbled happily.

Bumi looked up at the surface as he lay back against the rock. "You know what buddy? One of these day's I might just leave the ocean." He chuckled to himself at the thought. He'd always been fascinated by the surface, and often sat and thought about visiting and meeting the strange creatures that dwelled above the waves.

"Yeah; I'll just go up to the surface and ask one of those air-breathers to give me a ride." He added, the humor drained from his voice, "Then maybe I'd have company."

Bum Ju whistled indignantly.

"Okay, okay, _more_ company. The kind that doesn't come around me looking for snacks."

As he spoke, a shadow passed over the pair, causing them both to look up. From where they sat the merman and his friend spied the outline of a ship trudging through the water.

Bumi stared at the bottom of the floating mass, and after a moment said, "I'm going up there."

He kicked his tail out and began gracefully propelling himself up through the water, Bum Ju following close behind, whistling nervously.

"Aw, calm down Bum Ju, I'm just gonna take a peek. I don't see what all the fuss is about anyway. It's not like I'm dumb enough to swim into one of their fish traps."

A few feet away, Bumi paused to muster his courage, and then dove upward.

As his head broke the surface, water streamed out of his hair and into his eyes. After a minute or two of adjusting to the differences in light and sound, he looked out at the horizon. Underwater the sun had always looked like a vague patch of light; here, in the open air, it was a perfect sphere and bright orange against the reddening sky. For his first sight above water, Bumi declared it to be the best one.

The he looked over to the ship.

It was huge and made purely of metal. And while similar in design to some of the sunken wooden ones that Bumi was familiar with, this ship was clearly built more for speed than for strength. Already he was having to swim to catch up with it.

As he swam he heard a whistle and looked over to see Bum Ju next to him. "Decided to join me, huh?"

"_Weep!"_

"Who could blame you? Anyway, I'm glad; I'd hate to have to do this on my own. Now, let's see if we can get a peek at these air-breathers."

Bumi swam around inspecting the ship, but found no way to board it. So he swam several yards out and looked back, hoping to spy a few of these strange creatures traipsing atop their craft.

Then, he saw a most unusual sight. It was an air-breather, to be sure. It had the trademark legs (though Bumi didn't understand how they could be called this; they looked nothing like lobster or crab legs). But it looked like a fish, for it wore a suit of scales.

"No," he muttered to himself. Not scales. It was...armor? Armor made of ship metal? It also seemed to be holding a long tube, which was also made of metal. Bumi strained to think of what this could be and recovered a vague memory of a similar tube in his uncle's archives. Sokka called it a 'spy-glass'.

But what did an air-breather have to spy on?

While entertaining the question, the merman observed a few other air-breathers approaching the metal-wearer. They seemed to converse for a few minutes before the metal-wearer sent them off with a wave of its arm. Giving orders. Then it was the leader.

"This is so cool," Bumi murmured to Bum Ju, beside him. "It's like I'm peering into their little bubble."

Currently, the merman was starting to feel a bit dry and took a moment to dunk his head and soak his gills. When he re-surfaced, he saw that the metal-wearer had set aside the glass and was now staring out toward the horizon, its black hair waving in the breeze.

"Wow," he whispered. A second later he felt Bum Ju nudging against him, but he ignored the fish.

"_Wish I could say hello,"_ Bumi thought. "_I bet they would be happy to meet a merperson."_

This led him to thinking that perhaps he _should _try to say hello.

Then he felt Bum Ju rubbing against him again.

"What?" Bumi turned to the fish, frustrated. But then he saw what the creature had tried to call to his attention.

There on the horizon stood another ship of metal, this one as black as the deepest ocean trenches. It was larger, and faster, as it was coming towards this ship at an alarming rate.

As the sun kissed the lip of the water, washing everything around in the same bloody crimson as his tail, Bumi looked at the ship he'd been following and whispered, "Uh oh."


	2. The Ship

On the foredeck of a lone craft in the middle of the ocean, Captain Lin Bei Fong stood alone watching the sunset, her hands folded behind her back. Her crew had just finished picking up some important cargo in the south and was now headed back to make its delivery.

Behind her, members of her crew were idling about on deck. One man, Ting, leaned over to his fellow and whispered, "What does she think she's doing standing there like that?"

His fellow chuckled and said, "I think she's trying to look all resolute, like a real Captain."

Ting scoffed. "Well, good luck with that, Missy. Everyone knows that the only reason she's captain is because she's a Bei Fong. Otherwise, who would make an eighteen-year-old _girl_ captain of a ship?"

"Or in charge of this kind of cargo," the other crewman, Yeng, agreed.

"What's going on?" A couple more guys came over to join the conversation.

"Just talking about the 'Miss Captain'." One or two guys chuckled.

"You wanna talk," one guy spoke up, "how about that armor she wears. What does she think is gonna happen? A fight's gonna break out in the middle of the ocean? What is this, 70 AG?"

That got some laughs.

"How about that telescope? Last time I checked that was the Lookout's job."

"Hey, I know! Why don't you go ask her about it."

"Okay; I've got nothing better to do."

A few of them, Ting and Yeng included, went up to the foredeck and stood behind the captain, grinning at each other.

"Uh," Ting spoke up, "Captain?"

"Yes shipmate, what is it?"

"A few of the guys were wondering… What are you doing up here, with that spyglass and all? You know the lookout's good for that, right?"

"Yes, I am aware," the Captain continued without turning around, though she did set down the spyglass she'd been looking through. "However, I find that I like to keep an eye on the horizon myself. Just because we're in the middle of the ocean doesn't mean we can just assume we're safe."

"Well, to be fair Captain," said Yeng, taking his turn, "we _are_ in one of the best warcrafts that Republic City could afford. It should be able to handle anything we meet."

"Your logic is sound, Yeng, but in context its flawed. The cargo which this ship is carrying is more valuable than anything else on the sea right now. And just because our world is developing rapidly doesn't mean things such as pirates no longer exist."

"_Pirates_, Captain?"

"Yes."

The crewmen had a difficult time suppressing their laughter, until the Captain finally turned around; then they sobered up quick.

"I realize that you find my methods to be paranoid, but I do not care." She spoke in a commanding voice, very authoritative for a girl of eighteen. "Our cargo is precious, and I shall treat as such. And even if you do not respect me, I'd appreciate it if you respected the position of protection you have all been granted. Now, rather than standing around and mocking me, I suggest you make yourselves useful."

She dished out duties for them and sent them off with a wave of her hand. Lin knew the last part was pushing it a bit, but she was too annoyed to care. It was one thing to talk about her behind her back, but she had managed to catch every taunting remark they'd said. So what if she wore armor? It made her feel protected and capable, and it wasn't as if it was heavy. So what if she watched the horizon? The real reason was that she found their lookout to be of a dubious nature.

Lin looked at the horizon again, trying to brush off the anger she felt. It didn't matter what they thought anyway. She'd made captain of this mission, and nothing could change that. What was important was that the amulet reached home safely. The Wong Shu Amulet was one of the most expensive pieces of jewelry ever discovered, so naturally the buyer had put her in charge of retrieving it along with the rest of a small fortune; who better than his own granddaughter?

Presently she raised the spyglass once more and peered across the waves.

Then she saw it: the huge black hull of a rogue ship rearing upon the waves.

"Damn it…"

Immediately she began shouting orders. The enemy was larger than them, but Lin wasn't about to go down without a fight. When the ship was within a few hundred meters it fired, and the Bei Fong's cargo ship rocked.

"FIRE!" Lin shouted, and they did so, returning the great attack.

The battle continued and soon both ship had gaping holes in their sides. Lin was starting to lose hope when, without warning, lightning split the sky and caught the enemy ship on fire. The Bei Fong crew started rejoicing; but not Lin. She looked up at the sky, breathing unevenly. For though it was a crimson red, her eyes were keen enough to spy great storm clouds rolling toward them.

Lin steeled herself for what was to come.

Soon the whole scene was thrown into chaos. Rain pelted in from the side, crewmen ran around like mad, and the rogue ship continued to limp around, the fire spreading along its rafters.

"Captain," someone, Lin couldn't see who, shouted, "what should we do?"

Lin was currently on the main deck, gripping the side, trying to assess the situation. Then she looked up and saw that the rogue ship wasn't giving up because of a storm, and was still coming for them. Meanwhile her own ship was on the verge of sinking.

"Man the cannons," she said solemnly. "We're still in this."

In the water, Bumi and Bum Ju were bobbing about, trying to avoid getting hit by debris.

"_Weep!"_

"You're right," Bumi called, "we should probably go back under."

The two slid beneath the water and caught their breath. Before they had a chance to gather their bearings, a huge _BANG _rung out through the waves.

"Whoa…" Bumi looked up to see black smoke billowing out of the two ships as they began to sink.

On board Lin clung to the side of the ship and shouted orders.

"Get to the life rafts! You," she pointed to a few men, "come with me below deck. We're only going to get the most valuable objects; I won't let the rest of it pull us down."

Only half one or two listened to her, the rest throwing themselves into the rafts. She struggled down into the hold and the two men took the lightest chests. She looked around, panicking, unable to find the box which contained the Wong Shu Amulet. She waved for the men to go ahead as she searched for it.

They did so and before long all the rafts were in the water as the two burning vessels dipped into the sea. The Bei Fong crew watched, waiting for their Captain to emerge, but to no avail. A few began to regret taunting her as they had. With no other choice as the waves continued to toss with the storm, they rowed in the direction of land.

Bumi poked his head above the waves again, looking at the scene. He observed the land-dwellers seemed to have put aside their differences and the two crews had turned their fight against the waves. He also noticed that the armored one he'd observed earlier was missing.

"Where do you think it went?" he asked Bum Ju. The little fish shook it's head and dove again, unconcerned.

Still curious, Bumi followed him and swam to the wreckage.

Inside the hold, Lin had finally found the box and stuffed the amulet inside the bag on her belt. But now she was trapped as water began to flood the hold. The Captain weighed her options and studied the ship's interior. Finally, before she could change her mind again, she reached out and used her bending to tear a hole in the side.

She caught the rush of water and found herself in open water, far below the surface. She looked upward and swam desperately, fighting to keep alive. But it was too far.

As Bumi swam around the wreckage he noticed something shining in the water. There it was! The armored one. He swam over to it and saw that it had run out of air.

Without thinking he grabbed the creature and, once he got a hold of it, made for the surface.

They broke into the open air and the unconscious body in his arms breathed.

"That was a close one," Bumi huffed as he pulled the creature toward a floating piece of the wreckage. He laid it down and sighed as he looked at the pieces of destruction left on the waves. He shook his head and looked back to the creature, at how frail it looked after its dangerous experience.

"Now what?" he asked it.


End file.
